Building A Whole New Game Out Of Skyrim

Way back in 2013, I wrote about a mod called Enderal, a very ambitious attempt at creating an all-new game out of Skyrim's bones, with a new map, new buildings, new characters, the works. Shockingly, considering the way most of these things usually go, it's actually finished!

The team behind the total conversion (who are also behind a similar total conversion for Oblivion, called Nehrim) say it will be out next week, between July 1-3. The catch: because it's being made by Germans, it's being released first in German. English-speakers will have to wait "some weeks" for a translation.

That's how it used to be back in the days. Make a good Quake or Unreal mod and get noticed and hopefully hired. These days with so many free tools and the eases of self publishing why not just make your own thing and get some cash from it?

I assume they made this in their free time since it's free and they actually have a day job already. If that's the case then they could just as easily make a stand alone game rather than a mod and become indie developers and sell through Steam etc like all the other indie devs.

There's no need to do a mod to create a portfolio when the same can be done making a stand alone game and earning cash.

Part of it comes down to passion for the game & part of it comes down to building their own portfolio of games design if they wish to get a job in the industry. This way potential employers can see just what contribution that a modder can do